Blade and Bow Bourbon Whiskey

Blade and Bow comes with a key on the bottle, and the key is the story. The old Stitzel-Weller Distillery in Louisville — Pappy Van Winkle's distillery, opened on Derby Day 1935 and shuttered in 1992 — had five keys that represented the five steps of crafting bourbon: grains, yeast, fermentation, distillation, and aging. Diageo revived the site and launched Blade and Bow in 2015 as a tribute, and every bottle carries one of the five keys on its neck. The whiskey itself is built on a solera system, the only one in Kentucky: a fractional blending method borrowed from sherry in which barrels are never fully emptied, so a small portion of the oldest whiskey in the system — including some of the last bourbon distilled at Stitzel-Weller before it closed — carries forward into every batch, with younger sourced Kentucky bourbon replenishing the top. Bottled at 91 proof. Expect a nose of dried apricot, ripe pear, and honey with a whisper of fresh oak, opening into a smooth, gentle palate of caramel, vanilla, light baking spice, and a subtle grassy note, finishing medium and clean with a lingering sweetness. Honest note: enthusiasts debate how much old Stitzel-Weller liquid is actually in the blend, and at 91 proof it's built for smoothness rather than intensity. For a bourbon with a genuine piece of history in it and one of the best-looking bottles on the shelf, it's a graceful sipper and a superb Manhattan base. Collect all five keys.

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